Riley asks board to rethink parole

Wednesday

Aug 4, 2004 at 12:01 AMAug 4, 2004 at 1:53 AM

By Dana Beyerle Montgomery Bureau Chief

MONTGOMERY | When Gov. Bob Riley sought a special parole board to ease prison overcrowding by releasing nonviolent offenders, he didn't have people like husband-murderer Melanie Gray Lowery in mind, members of the regular state parole board said Tuesday.

"We know for a fact that wasn't even an issue," Chairman Sidney Williams said. "We were dealing with nonviolent people and those most deserving [of parole] and not the violent type."

Riley has asked the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles to reconsider its Monday decision to release the 49-year-old Lowery, who was convicted in the August 1990 shooting death of her husband, Hokes Bluff minister Jackie Ray Lowery.

Board members Don McGriff and Cliff Walker voted to release Lowery, while Steve McGill voted against her release.

Lowery has served about 14 years of a 30-year sentence.

Monday's vote happened amid objections from the family of the victim, Riley, Attorney General Troy King, victims groups and Etowah County District Attorney James Hedgspeth Jr.

King, along with Riley, asked the board to reverse its decision in a letter sent to Williams. King also plans a formal protest.

"I am shocked that the Alabama Board of Pardons and Parole today rewarded wickedness with injustice," he said. "My heart aches that the state would inflict this pain on the victims."

A spokeswoman for the parole board, Cynthia Dillard, later said that McGriff and Walker didn't indicate they would reverse the decision despite being asked to do so and after Williams's discussion with them.

"They both are aware they can reconsider at this time, but neither has indicated they want to or will," Dillard said.

"The barbarism and brutality exhibited by Mrs. Lowery 14 years ago when she shot her husband in the head, burned and dismembered his body, before chopping and burying his remains, represents a cold-bloodedness that was answered with a prison sentence every day of which should be served," King and Riley wrote Williams in a joint letter.

Hedgspeth said he and Riley discussed the case on Tuesday. Riley cannot force McGriff and Walker to reconsider, and Dillard said the regular parole board cannot take the case away from the special board -- a second board that was created by the Legislature to speed up parole hearings as well as to ease prison overcrowding.

"I would trust the people appointed by the governor at least would heed the information he's given to them," Hedgspeth said. "There's no way in the world they can justify what they did."